In the con­text of the civil war with no end in sight in South Sudan, this report out­lines how a donor-​​led shift from the cur­rent total reliance on diesel to renew­able energy can deliver short-​​term human­i­tar­ian cost sav­ings while cre­at­ing a longer– term build­ing block for peace in the form of a clean energy infra­struc­ture. […]

Distributed photovoltaics (PV) have played a critical role in the deployment of solar energy, currently making up roughly half of the global PV installed capacity. However, there remains significant unused economically beneficial potential. Estimates of the total technical potential for rooftop PV systems in the United States calculate a generation comparable to approximately 40% of the 2016 total national electric-sector sales. To best take advantage of the rooftop PV potential, effective analytic tools that support deployment strategies and aggressive local, state, and national policies to reduce the soft cost of solar energy are vital. A key step is the low-cost automation of data analysis and business case presentation for structure-integrated solar energy. In this paper, the scalability and resolution of various methods to assess the urban rooftop PV potential are compared, concluding with suggestions for future work in bridging methodologies to better assist policy makers.

A flaw in Europe’s clean energy plan allows fuel from felled trees to qual­ify as renew­able energy when in fact this would accel­er­ate cli­mate change and dev­as­tate forests The Euro­pean Union is mov­ing to enact a direc­tive to dou­ble Europe’s cur­rent renew­able energy by 2030. This is admirable, but a crit­i­cal flaw in the […]

In the past decade the construction and retrofitting of individual homes to reduce energy and water use has grown explosively. Yet applying green construction to multiple buildings at once may be an even better idea. Sharing resources and infrastructure

could reduce waste, and retrofitting impoverished or moderate-income neighborhoods

could also bring cost savings and modern technology to people who would typically lack such opportunities.

Working at the neighborhood level does add complexity to planning, but these neighborhood efforts offer rewards that even green single-family homes

cannot offer.

One such example is the Oakland EcoBlock project, which I lead at the University of California, Berkeley, with my colleague Harrison Fraker, a professor of architecture and urban design. It is a multidisciplinary endeavor involving urban designers, engineers, social

The program, which has been planned in great detail but has not yet begun construction , will retrofit 30 - 40 contiguous old homes in a lower- to middle income neighborhood near California's famous Golden Gate Bridge. It aims to apply existing technology to

dramatically reduce fossil-fuel and water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. We expect the community to rapidly recoup the money spent on infrastructure with savings

This dec­la­ra­tion is based on the data and con­cepts pre­sented at the workshop: Health of Peo­ple, Health of Planet and Our Responsibility Cli­mate Change, Air Pol­lu­tion and Health Orga­nized by the Pon­tif­i­cal Acad­emy of Sci­ences Casina Pio IV, Vat­i­can City, 2–4 Novem­ber 2017, Casina Pio IV State­ment of the Problem With unchecked cli­mate change and […]

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Actualizing the Encyclical Laudato Si

Green Job Creation and Regional Economic Opportunities at the State Level

Energy poverty, is arguably the most pervasive and crippling threat society faces today. Lack of access impacts several billion people, with immediate health, educational, economic, and social damages. Furthermore, how this problem is addressed will result in the largest accelerant of global pollution, or the largest opportunity to pivot away from fossil-fuels onto the needed clean energy path. In a clear example of the power of systems thinking, energy poverty and climate change together present a dual crisis of energy injustice along gender, ethnic, and socioeconomic grounds, which has been exacerbated if not caused outright by a failure of the wealthy to see how tightly coupled is our collective global fate if addressing climate change fairly and inclusively does not become an immediate, actionable, priority.

While debate exists on the optimal path or paths to wean our economy from fossil fuels, there is no question that technically we have today a sufficient knowledge and technological foundation to launch and to even complete the decarbonisation (IPCC, 2011). Critically needed is an equally powerful social narrative to accelerate the clean energy transition. Laudato Si’ provides a compelling formulation of the injustice that is both greed and pollution, but an ongoing outreach and partnership effort is needed to truly leverage its powerful message.

In this essay we present examples across scales of the evolving knowledge base needed to build universal clean energy access. This leads to a formulation of an action agenda to defeat energy poverty and energy injustice.

Abstract:

Overview: Energy poverty, is arguably the most per­va­sive and crip­pling threat soci­ety faces today. Lack of access impacts sev­eral bil­lion peo­ple, with imme­di­ate health, edu­ca­tional, eco­nomic, and social dam­ages. Fur­ther­more, how this prob­lem is addressed will result in the largest accel­er­ant of global pol­lu­tion, or the largest oppor­tu­nity to pivot away from fossil-​​fuels onto the […]

Mexico's recent energy reform (2013) has provided the foundations for increased private participation in attempts to offset or reverse the country's continued decline in fossil fuel production. This country is currently on path to becoming a net energy importer by 2020. Conversely, in 2015, and for the first time in over 20 years, the United States (US) became a net oil exporter to Mexico. One of the strategies being pursued by Mexico to prevent an impending supply–demand energy imbalance is the development of shale resources using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques. Hence, an evaluation of the inherent risks associated with hydraulic fracturing is crucial for Mexico's energy planning and decision-making process. This paper draws lessons from the recent ‘shale boom’ in the US, and it analyzes and summarizes the environmental, social, economic, and community impacts that Mexico should be aware of as its nascent shale industry develops. The analysis seeks to inform mainly Mexican policy makers, but also academics, nongovernmental organizations, and the public in general, about the main concerns regarding hydraulic fracturing activities, and the importance of regulatory enforcement and community engagement in advancing sustainability. Furthermore, using the US as a case study, we argue that development of unconventional oil and gas resources in Mexico could lead to a short-term boom rather than to a dependable and sustainable long-term energy supply. Our analysis concludes with a set of recommendations for Mexico, featuring best practices that could be used to attenuate and address some of the impacts likely to emerge from shale oil and gas development.

Climate change projections often focus on 2100. But the geological record shows that unless we rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we will be locking in drastic increases in temperatures and sea levels that will alter the earth not just for centuries, but for millennia.
BY ROB WILDER AND DAN KAMMEN • SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

This paper presents the first detailed long-term stock turnover model to investigate scenarios to decarbonize the
residential water heating sector in California, which is currently dominated by natural gas. We model a mix of
water heating (WH) technologies including conventional and on-demand (tank-less) natural gas heating,
electric resistance, existing electric heat pumps, advanced heat pumps with low global warming refrigerants and
solar thermal water heaters. Technically feasible policy scenarios are developed by considering combinations of
WH technologies with efficiency gains within each technology, lowering global warming potential of refrigerants
and decreasing grid carbon intensity. We then evaluate energy demand, emissions and equipment replacement
costs of the pathways. We develop multiple scenarios by which the annual greenhouse gas emissions from
residential water heaters in California can be reduced by over 80% from 1990 levels resulting in an annual
savings of over 10 Million Metric Tons by 2050. The overall cost of transition will depend on future cost
reductions in heat pump and solar thermal water heating equipment, energy costs, and hot water consumption.

The Arti­cle reviews the United States’ recent deci­sion to with­draw from the Paris Accord and recounts some of the most promi­nent pol­icy dis­cus­sions sur­round­ing this deci­sion. The Arti­cle goes on to explain, that these pol­icy dis­cus­sions reject sci­ence in favor of short-​​term polit­i­cal gains. The Arti­cle reviews new sci­en­tific reports which indi­cates that sea level rise […]

Sus­tain­able Design of Communities Daniel M. Kammen June 26, 2017 Mov­ing beyond a focus on solar roofs for single-​​family homes, ambi­tious projects are attempt­ing to join blocks of build­ings into sus­tain­able units In the past decade, the con­struc­tion and retro­fitting of indi­vid­ual homes to reduce energy and water use has grown explo­sively. Yet apply­ing green con­struc­tion to […]

This pub­li­ca­tion web­site sup­ports the new paper, in press at Nature Energy, titled: Energy stor­age deploy­ment and inno­va­tion for the clean energy transition as a site where users can down­load the Excel ver­sions of the data sets used i that paper, whose authors Noah Kit­tnera,b, Felix Lillb,c and Daniel M. Kam­men*a,b,d a Energy and Resources […]

This study identifies, characterizes, and values wind and solar electricity resources for 21 countries in the Eastern and Southern Africa Power Pools. We find that many countries possess potential many times their projected demand. However, because the most competitive wind and solar resources are spatially uneven, international transmission could allow the region as a whole to benefit from “no-regrets” or low-cost, low-impact, and highly accessible resources. International energy trade also lowers system costs by reducing the need for conventional power plants and allows lower impact, more accessible renewable energy sites to be cost competitive. Regional interconnections planned around strategic siting opportunities are crucial for realizing no-regrets wind and solar energy development that can be competitive with conventional generation in African countries.

Abstract: Microgrids are a rapidly evolving and increasingly common form of local power generation
used to serve the needs of both rural and urban communities. In this paper, we present a methodology
to evaluate the evolution of the sustainability of stand-alone microgrids projects. The proposed
methodology considers a composite sustainability index (CSI) that includes both positive and negative
impacts of the operation of the microgrid in a given community. The CSI is constructed along
environmental, social, economic and technical dimensions of the microgrid. The sub-indexes of
each dimension are aggregated into the CSI via a set of adaptive weighting factors, which indicate
the relative importance of the corresponding dimension in the sustainability goals. The proposed
methodology aims to be a support instrument for policy makers especially when defining sound
corrective measures to guarantee the sustainability of small, isolated microgrid projects. To validate
the performance of the proposed methodology, a microgrid installed in the northern part of Chile
(Huatacondo) has been used as a benchmarking project.

The ongoing debate over the cost-effectiveness of renewable energy (RE) and energy efficiency (EE) deployment often hinges on the current cost of incumbent fossil-fuel technologies versus the long-term benefit of clean energy alternatives. This debate is often focused on mature or ‘industrialized’ economies and externalities such as job creation. In many ways, however, the situation in developing economies is at least as or even more interesting due to the generally faster current rate of economic growth and of infrastructure deployment. On the one hand, RE and EE could help decarbonize economies in developing countries, but on the other hand, higher upfront costs of RE and EE could hamper short-term growth. The methodology developed in this paper confirms the existence of this trade-off for some scenarios, yet at the same time provides considerable evidence about the positive impact of EE and RE from a job creation and employment perspective. By extending and adopting a methodology for Africa designed to calculate employment from electricity generation in the U.S., this study finds that energy savings and the conversion of the electricity supply mix to renewable energy generates employment compared to a reference scenario. It also concludes that the costs per additional job created tend to decrease with increasing levels of both EE adoption and RE shares.

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Africa; green jobs

Associated Projects:

Green Job Creation and Regional Economic Opportunities at the State Level

Planning the appropriate renewable energy (RE) installation rate should balance two partially
contradictory objectives: substituting fossil fuels fast enough to stave-off the worst consequences of
climate change while maintaining a sufficient net energy flow to support the world’s economy. The
upfront energy invested in constructing a RE infrastructure subtracts from the net energy available for
societal energy needs, a fact typically neglected in energy projections. Modeling feasible energy
transition pathways to provide different net energy levels we find that they are critically dependent on
the fossil fuel emissions cap and phase-out profile and on the characteristic energy return on energy
invested of the RE technologies. The easiest pathway requires installation of RE plants to accelerate
from 0.12T Wp yr–1 in 2013 to peak between 7.3 and 11.6 TWp yr–1 in the late 2030s, for an early or a
late fossil-fuel phase-out respectively in order for emissions to stay within the recommended CO2
budget.

With dramatic cost declines and performance improvements, both mini-hydropower and solar photovoltaics (PV) now serve as core options to meet the growing demand for electricity in underserved regions worldwide. We compare the net energy return on energy invested (EROI) of mini-hydropower and solar electricity using five existing mini-hydropower installations in northern Thailand with grid-connected solar PV simulations. Both assessments use a life cycle perspective to estimate the EROI. We find that distributed mini-grids with penetrations of solar PV up to 50% of annual generation can exceed the EROI of some fossil-based traditional centralized grid systems. The analysis will help planners and engineers optimize mini-grids for energy payback and utilize local resources in their design. The results suggest higher EROI ratios for mini-hydropower plants than solar PV, though mini-hydropower plants typically yield lower EROI ratios than their large-scale hydropower counterparts.

To prepare for an urban influxof 2.5 billion people by 2050, it is critical to create cities that are lowcarbon,
resilient, and livable. Cities not only contribute to global climate change by emitting the
majority of anthropogenic greenhouse gases but also are particularly vulnerable to the effects
of climate change and extreme weather.We explore options for establishing sustainable energy
systems by reducing energy consumption, particularly in the buildings and transportation sectors,
and providing robust, decentralized, and renewable energy sources. Through technical
advancements in power density, city-integrated renewable energy will be better suited to satisfy
the high-energy demands of growing urban areas. Several economic, technical, behavioral, and
political challenges need to be overcome for innovation to improve urban sustainability.

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Carbon and Resource Footprint Tool: The Coolclimate Project

Green Job Creation and Regional Economic Opportunities at the State Level

We present an integrated model, SWITCH-China, of the Chinese power sector that we use to analyze the economic and technological implications of a medium to long-term decarbonization scenario while accounting for very-short-term renewable variability. On the basis of the model and assumptions used, we find that the announced 2030 carbon peak can be achieved with a carbon price of ∼$40/tCO2. Current trends in renewable energy price reductions alone are insufficient to replace coal; however, an 80% carbon emission reduction by 2050 is achievable in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Target Scenario with an optimal electricity mix in 2050 including nuclear (14%), wind (23%), solar (27%), hydro (6%), gas (1%), coal (3%), and carbon capture and sequestration coal energy (26%). The co-benefits of carbon-price strategy would offset 22% to 42% of the increased electricity costs if the true cost of coal and the social cost of carbon are incorporated. In such a scenario, aggressive attention to research and both technological and financial innovation mechanisms are crucial to enabling the transition at a reasonable cost, along with strong carbon policies.

We explore the operations, balancing requirements, and costs of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council power system under a stringent greenhouse gas emission reduction target. We include sensitivities for technology costs and availability, fuel prices and emissions, and demand profile. Meeting an emissions target of 85% below 1990 levels is feasible across a range of assumptions, but the cost of achieving the goal and the technology mix are uncertain. Deployment of solar photovoltaics is the main driver of storage deployment: the diurnal periodicity of solar energy availability results in opportunities for daily arbitrage that storage technologies with several hours of duration are well suited to provide. Wind output exhibits seasonal variations and requires storage with a large energy subcomponent to avoid curtailment. The combination of low-cost solar technology and advanced battery technology can provide substantial savings through 2050, greatly mitigating the cost of climate change mitigation. Policy goals for storage deployment should be based on the function storage will play on the grid and therefore incorporate both the power rating and duration of the storage system. These goals should be set as part of overall portfolio development, as system flexibility needs will vary with the grid mix.

Continuation of the U.S.’s historical pattern addressing energy problems only in times of crisis is unlikely to catalyze a transition to an energy system with fewer adverse social impacts. Instead, the U.S. needs to bolster support for energy innovation when the perceived urgency of energy-related problems appears to be receding. Because of the lags involved in both the energy system and the climate system, decarbonizing the economy will require extraordinary persistence over decades. This need for sustained commitment is in contrast to the last several decades, which have been marked by volatility and cycles of boom and bust. In contrast to the often -repeated phrase that one should ‘never let a good crisis go to waste,’ the U.S. needs to most actively foster energy innovation when aspects of energy and climate problems appear to be improving. We describe the rationale for a ‘countercyclical’ approach to energy and climate policy, which involves pre-commitment t o a set of policies that go into effect once a set of trigger conditions are met.

Pro­posed state fee would end solar savings by Jon Welling­hoff and Daniel Kammen Photo: Rich Pedron­celli, Asso­ci­ated Press A solar panel is installed in mid-​​October on the roof of the Governor’s Man­sion State His­toric Park in Sacramento. Cal­i­for­nia con­sumers are embrac­ing rooftop solar with prac­ti­cal enthu­si­asm, bring­ing the state halfway toward its goal […]

Carbon dioxide (written as CO2) releases from fossil fuels cause climate change, a warming of the earth that causes more intense heat waves, extreme weather, and other negative impacts on our world. How can we stop future climate change? One option is to remove CO2 from the air around us. Here, we describe an original carbon dioxide removal technology called bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration (BECCS). BECCS produces energy from plants, grasses, or trees while removing CO2 from our atmosphere. Scientists are just beginning to understand the role that BECCS can play in reducing climate change. We describe recent research that shows how the world might build electricity systems – a network that delivers electricity to your home – that remove, rather than release, CO2. These systems are very different from our current electricity systems, which use large amounts of fossil fuels.

Abstract
China׳s wind installed capacity has grown at a remarkable rate, over 80% annually average growth since 2005, reaching 91.5 GW of capacity by end of 2013, accounting for over 27% of global capacity. This rapid growth has been the result of a domestic manufacturing base and favorable national policies. Further evolution will be greatly aided with a detailed wind resource assessment that incorporates spatial and temporal variability across China. We utilized 200 representative locations for which 10 years of hourly wind speed data exist to develop provincial capacity factors from 2001 to 2010, and to build analytic wind speed profiles. From these data and analysis we find that China׳s annual wind generation could reach 2000 TWh to 3500 TWh. Nationally this would correspond to an average capacity factor of 0.18. The diurnal and seasonal variation shows spring and winter has better wind resources than in the summer and fall. A highly interconnected and coordinated power system is needed to effectively exploit this large but variable resource. A full economic assessment of exploitable wind resources demands a larger, systems-level analysis of China's energy options, for which this work is a core requirement.

Abstract
Integrating variable energy resources, notably solar and wind, requires better understanding of where, when and how much of variable resources are available. China's ambitious solar energy development goal will be greatly facilitated by the resources assessment at higher spatial and temporal resolution. We utilized 10-year hourly solar irradiation data from 2001 to 2010 from 200 representative locations to develop provincial solar availability profiles. We found that China has a potential stationary solar capacity from 4700 GW to 39300 GW, distributed solar about 200 GW, and the annual solar output could reach 6900 TWh to 70100 TWh. Resources are most concentrated in northwest provinces, topped by Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Gansu. The challenge of solar development in China is integration rather than resources. The spatial and temporal variation of the solar resource show an efficient, robust, and inter-connected national grid and sound energy planning would be necessary to facilitate the integration of these vastly available but variable solar resources.

Two critically important and linked challenges face the global community in the
21st century: the persistence of widespread energy poverty and the resulting loss of economic opportunity; and intensifying human-driven climate disruption.
These crises are inexorably linked through the energy technology systems that have so far provided the vast majority of our energy: fossil fuels. Both the equity and energy service crisis and the climate crisis have become increasingly serious over past decades, even though we have seen with greater clarity the individual and social benefits that energy technology systems have brought to humanity.
The correlation between access to electricity and a wide range of social goods is
overwhelming. Access to improved energy services alone does not, however, provide a surefire pathway to economic opportunity and an improved quality of life. In Figure 1 we show the correlation between electricity access across nations and a variety of quality of- life indicators such as the Human Development Index, a measure of well-being based in equal thirds on gross national income, life expectancy and educational attainment. Other indicators studied include gender equality in educational opportunity and the percentage of students who reach educational milestones. All of these indices improve significantly and roughly linearly with access to electricity. As just one example, both the
percentage of people below the poverty line and childhood mortality decline with increasing access to energy.

This study aims to better understand the dispersion trends of toxic emissions coming from the Richmond Chevron refinery, analyzing the condition through the lens of relevant policy and local politics, ultimately assessing the scenario against the ideals of environmental justice. Employing a wedge model to make predictions on concentrations of tropospheric ozone, particulate matter (PM2.5), and the BTEX toxic compound, the predictive performance is inconsistent and ultimately deemed unreliable, however the unreliability can be largely attributed to the lack of complete and consistent data and the inherent use of many assumptions. Considering the role of policy and politics on the enabling and perpetuation of the refinery operations, the lack of strong restrictive policy, poor availability of coherent data, and far outdated epidemiological studies on the impacts of exposure to known toxics in the air create a very challenging platform for public awareness and improvement of the condition. Looking into the future of the energy economy, hope is restored in the eventual reduction in emissions, though amendments to existing policy can aid in an earlier transition towards sustainability and improved public health.

Joint Work­shop of the Pon­tif­i­cal Acad­emy of Sci­ences and the Pon­tif­i­cal Acad­emy of Social Sci­ences, 2–6 May 2014 Are Humanity’s deal­ings with Nature sus­tain­able? What is the sta­tus of the Human Per­son in a world where sci­ence pre­dom­i­nates? How should we per­ceive Nature and what is a good rela­tion­ship between Human­ity and Nature? Should one expect […]

Malaysian Borneo is the currently the subject of contentious state-led development plans that involve a series of mega-dams to stimulate industrial demand. There is little quantitative analysis of energy options or cost and benefit trade-offs in the literature or the public discussion. We use the commercial energy market software PLEXOS to prepare a long term capacity expansion model for the state of Sarawak which includes existing generation, resource constraints and operability constraints. We also incorporate the indirect costs of greenhouse gas emissions and direct forest loss. We devise and model different scenarios to observe the technically feasible options for electricity supply that satisfy future demand under four growth assumptions and then observe their economic and environmental trade-offs. Our central finding is that local resources including solar and biomass waste technologies can contribute to the generation mix at lower cost and environmental impact than the additional dam construction. Our case study of Borneo represents many energy related megaprojects being developed in emerging economies and our proposed method of assessment can support the current conversations on development of natural resources and potential sustainable solutions.

In my own words: The Energy to Change the World ....
As a post-doctoral fellow, I had the opportunity to work on energy systems in Central America, including solar ovens and wind energy. I was able to explore both on-grid and off-grid energy issue, and that's when I really ben to appreciate how central e

EVERY EVENING, NEARLY A THIRD OF OUR planet’s population is plunged
into darkness. With no access to electric power, much of the world will
rely on toxic kerosene lanterns, low-quality dry-cell battery torches, or
loud and expensive diesel powered generators. These technologies are not
only expensive in the long-run, but are also sources of pollution, damaging
household health and global climate. The global lack of universal energy
access is perhaps our greatest collective failure; it locks people in poverty,
harms their health and causes large scale environmental damage.
One critical solution expected to fill much of the energy gap is the
mini-grid: a standalone energy system that provides power to multiple
households, employing a range of renewable energy options. However,
mini-grids are challenging to finance for two primary reasons: high risk and
high transaction cost. To address these barriers and substantially increase
the flow of private capital into the sector, new approaches to investment
need to be developed. In this report, we provide a framework for such a
solution: the Mini-grid Pooling Facility (MPF).
We begin by outlining the current state of access, global financing requirements,
and mini-grids as an asset class. Over 65% of off-grid populations
are expected to benefit from mini-grids by 2030, and over 30% of
total investment into access is expected to be in this asset class, totaling
between $4 and $50 Billion annually.
The first barrier to minigrid investment is the scale and complexity of
associated risk. Renewable energy mini-grids will primarily be employed in
regions with low levels of socioeconomic development, complex business
environments, unstable political regimes, and often vague or unsupportive
regulatory frameworks. This results in a complex challenge for firm
managers and financiers, who have to mitigate, allocate, and eliminate
the complex risks that prevent successful and sustainable development, construction, and operation (see section 6 for a detailed risk analysis).
While some can be easily (although not inexpensively) managed through
insurance products, other risks are hard to quantify, challenging to price,
and even more difficult to address.
The second barrier to effective financing of mini-grids is the transaction
cost facing potential investors if projects are approached individually.
Regardless of size, any individual minigrid project incurs a set of fixed
transaction costs including identification, diligence, and platform development
expenses, which are described in detail in section 7. These fixed
costs are often significant relative to the size of the potential investment
often overwhelming the financial viability of an individual project.
We propose a solution that addresses both of these barriers through
project and capital pooling. An MPF can strategically select projects into
portfolios, thus diversifying risk and increasing capital requirements. By
centralizing some fixed expenses, transaction costs can be lowered significantly
on a per-project basis, thus increasing returns substantially for
potential investors. The MPF can also serve to attract previously unavailable
capital, better leverage philanthropic investment, result in lower
technology costs, and deliver other benefits (see section 8). While the
potential of this approach is substantial, MPF managers must also be conscious
of the drawbacks of creating portfolios of mini-grids, and these are
outlined in section 8.2. Best practices can also be derived from the case
studies we present in this report, which are summarized in the appendix
at the end of the report.
We conclude by discussing potential structures for an MPF, including
private and public options. It is critical that developers, investors, and
researchers work together, conduct the proper analysis, and determine
which structure is most appropriate in the working context. While this
report does not prescribe any particular approach, we hope that the information
provided in these pages serves to inform firm managers, investors,
development finance institution leaders, and other relevant stakeholders
in this complex decision process. Ultimately it is our hope that effective
implementation of the concepts in this paper will contribute to increased
energy access for all.

Crit­i­cal assess­ment of mega-​​projects is emerg­ing as a much-​​needed dis­ci­pline in an era when, in many places, resource demands exceed envi­ron­men­tal capac­ity. This techno-​​economic study, using the Desali­na­tion Eco­nomic Eval­u­a­tion Pro­gram devel­oped by the Inter­na­tional Atomic Energy Agency, shows that by 2030, China will have the capac­ity to pro­duce 23.1 bil­lion m3 of water annu­ally, at $0.86/m3, as […]

Carbon management is of increasing interest to individuals, households,
and communities. In order to effectively assess and manage their climate impacts,
individuals need information on the financial and greenhouse gas benefits of effective
mitigation opportunities. We use consumption-based life cycle accounting techniques
to quantify the carbon footprints of typical U.S. households in 28 cities for 6 household
sizes and 12 income brackets. The model includes emissions embodied in transportation,
energy, water, waste, food, goods, and services. We further quantify greenhouse
gas and financial savings from 13 potential mitigation actions across all household types.
The model suggests that the size and composition of carbon footprints vary
dramatically between geographic regions and within regions based on basic demographic
characteristics. Despite these differences, large cash-positive carbon footprint
reductions are evident across all household types and locations; however, realizing this
potential may require tailoring policies and programs to different population segments
with very different carbon footprint profiles. The results of this model have been
incorporated into an open access online carbon footprint management tool designed to
enable behavior change at the household level through personalized feedback.

Carbon management is of increasing interest to individuals, households, and communities. In order to effectively assess and manage their climate impacts, individuals need information on the financial and greenhouse gas benefits of effective mitigation opportunities. We use consumption-based life cycle accounting techniques to quantify the carbon footprints of typical U.S. households in 28 cities for 6 household sizes and 12 income brackets. The model includes emissions embodied in transportation, energy, water, waste, food, goods, and services. We further quantify greenhouse gas and financial savings from 13 potential mitigation actions across all household types. The model suggests that the size and composition of carbon footprints vary dramatically between geographic regions and within regions based on basic demographic characteristics. Despite these differences, large cash-positive carbon footprint reductions are evident across all household types and locations; however, realizing this potential may require tailoring policies and programs to different population segments with very different carbon footprint profiles. The results of this model have been incorporated into an open access online carbon footprint management tool designed to enable behavior change at the household level through personalized feedback.

In an era when pressing environmental problems make collaboration across the divide between sciences and arts and humanities essential, this book presents the results of a collaborative analysis by an anthropologist and a physicist of four key junctures between science, society, and environment. The first focuses on the systemic bias in science in favour of studying esoteric subjects as distinct from the mundane subjects of everyday life; the second is a study of the fire-climax grasslands of Southeast Asia, especially those dominated by Imperata cylindrica (sword grass); the third reworks the idea of ‘moral economy’, applying it to relations between environment and society; and the fourth focuses on the evolution of the global discourse of the culpability and responsibility of climate change. The volume concludes with the insights of an interdisciplinary perspective for the natural and social science of sustainability. It argues that failures of conservation and development must be viewed systemically, and that mundane topics are no less complex than the more esoteric subjects of science. The book addresses a current blind spot within the academic research community to focusing attention on the seemingly common and mundane beliefs and practices that ultimately play the central role in the human interaction with the environment.
This book will benefit students and scholars from a number of different academic disciplines, including conservation and environment studies, development studies, studies of global environmental change, anthropology, geography, sociology, politics, and science and technology studies.

We have developed an analytic platform to analyze the energy options, costs, and impacts for Kosovo, a nation at the forefront of the global debates over energy access and the role of fossil fuels versus cleaner energy options to meet growing demands for power. We find that a range of alternatives exists to meet present supply constraints all at a lower cost than constructing a proposed 600 MW coal plant. The options include energy efficiency measures, combinations of solar PV, wind, hydropower, and biomass, and the introduction of natural gas. A $30/ton carbon price increases costs of coal generation by at least $330 million USD. The results indicate that financing a 600 MW coal plant is the most expensive pathway to meet future electricity demand.

With 1.4 billion people lacking electricity to light their homes and provide other basic services, or to conduct business, and all of humanity (and particularly the poor) are in need of a decarbonized energy system can close the energy access gap and protect the global climate system. With particular focus on addressing the energy needs of the underserved, we present an analytical framework informed by historical trends and contemporary technological, social, and institutional conditions that clarifies the heterogeneous continuum of centralized on-grid electricity, autonomous mini- or community grids, and distributed, individual energy services. We find that the current day is a unique moment of innovation in decentralized energy networks based on super-efficient end-use technology and low-cost photovoltaics, supported by rapidly spreading information technology, particularly mobile phones. Collectively these disruptive technology systems could rapidly increase energy access, contributing to meeting the Millennium Development Goals for quality of life, while simultaneously driving action towards low-carbon, Earth-sustaining, energy systems.

Abstract. The growth of the U. S. and global solar energy industry depends on a strong relationship between
science and engineering innovation, manufacturing, and cycles of policy design and advancement. The mixture
of the academic and industrial engine of innovation that is Silicon Valley, and the strong suite of environmental
policies for which California is a leader work together to both drive the solar energy industry, and keep Silicon Valley
competitive as China, Europe and other area of solar energy strength continue to build their clean energy
sectors.
Keywords: Phovoltaics; innovation; technology transfer; green jobs

Build­ing Sus­tain­abil­ity into the East African Power Pool Plan New Study Rec­om­mends Less Hydro, More Climate-​​Resilient Renewables UC Berkeley’s Renew­able and Appro­pri­ate Energy Lab­o­ra­tory and Inter­na­tional Rivers have co-​​published a review of the energy plan­ning and resource assess­ment efforts being done by the East African Power Pool (EAPP), and rec­om­men­da­tions for its improvement. The EAPP has […]

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Green Job Creation and Regional Economic Opportunities at the State Level

Sus­tain­able bio­mass can play a trans­for­ma­tive role in the tran­si­tion to a decar­bonized econ­omy, with poten­tial appli­ca­tions in elec­tric­ity, heat, chem­i­cals, and trans­porta­tion fuels. Deploy­ing bioen­ergy with car­bon cap­ture and seques­tra­tion (BECCS) results in a net reduc­tion in atmos­pheric car­bon. BECCS may be one of the few cost-​​effective carbon-​​negative oppor­tu­ni­ties avail­able should anthro­pogenic cli­mate change […]

http://​www​.ft​.com/​i​n​t​l​/​c​m​s​/​s​/​0​/​6​f​2​4​2​a​0​6​-​d​3​8​8​-​1​1​e​3​-​b​0​b​e​-​0​0​1​4​4​f​e​a​b​d​c​0​.​h​t​m​l​#​a​x​z​z​3​Y​E​t​Z​J​zYY Some of the most dis­tin­guished sci­en­tists in the US have writ­ten to UK energy sec­re­tary Ed Davey, urg­ing him to aban­don the government’s “mis­guided” sub­si­dies for com­pa­nies burn­ing wood pel­lets to gen­er­ate elec­tric­ity, such as the Drax plant in Yorkshire. The biol­o­gist, Dr E.O. Wil­son and Pro­fes­sor Daniel Kam­men, an energy adviser to the […]

The solar photovoltaic (PV) industry has undergone a dramatic evolution over the past decade, growing at an average rate of 48 percent per year to a global market size of 31 GW in 2012, and with the price of crystalline-silicon PV module as low as $0.72/W in September 2013. To examine this evolution we built a comprehensive dataset from 2000 to 2012 for the PV industries in the United States, China, Japan, and Germany, which we used to develop a model to explain the dynamics among innovation, manufacturing, and market. A two-factor learning curve model is constructed to make explicit the effect of innovation from economies of scale. The past explosive growth has resulted in an oversupply problem, which is undermining the effectiveness of “demand-pull” policies that could otherwise spur innovation. To strengthen the industry we find that a policy shift is needed to balance the excitement and focus on market forces with a larger commitment to research and development funding. We use this work to form a set of recommendations and a roadmap that will enable a next wave of innovation and thus sustainable growth of the PV industry into a mainstay of the global energy economy.

Sci­en­tists Charles H. Greene, of Cor­nell Uni­ver­sity, and Daniel M. Kam­men, of the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia, Berke­ley, offer this com­men­tary on the recent Yale Envi­ron­ment 360 Point/​Counterpoint arti­cles by Bob Massie and Robert N. Stavins on the fos­sil fuel divest­ment movement. The recent Point/​Counterpoint arti­cles by Bob Massie and Robert N. Stavins in Yale Envi­ron­ment 360raised a num­ber of inter­est­ing points about the fos­sil fuel […]

Meet­ing a green­house gas (GHG) reduc­tion tar­get of 80% below 1990 lev­els in the year 2050 requires detailed long-​​term plan­ning due to com­plex­ity, iner­tia, and path depen­dency in the energy sys­tem. A detailed inves­ti­ga­tion of sup­ply and demand alter­na­tives is con­ducted to assess require­ments for future Cal­i­for­nia energy sys­tems that can meet the 2050 GHG […]

Today, UC Berke­ley and most insti­tu­tions are finan­cially invested in destroy­ing our future. This may sound a lit­tle bit sur­pris­ing to some — even unfounded. Let me explain. When it comes to cli­mate change, the sci­en­tific com­mu­nity has pre­sented a clear, unam­bigu­ous mes­sage: Human burn­ing of fos­sil fuels — coal, oil and nat­ural gas — […]

Island regions and iso­lated com­mu­ni­ties rep­re­sent an under­stud­ied area of not only clean energy devel­op­ment but also of inno­va­tion. Caribbean states have for some time shown inter­est in devel­op­ing a regional sus­tain­able energy pol­icy and in imple­ment­ing mea­sures which could help to pro­tect its mem­ber states from volatile oil mar­kets while pro­mot­ing reliance on local […]

The United States Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative has set cost-reduction targets of $1/watt for central-station solar technologies. We use SWITCH, a high-resolution electricity system planning model, to study the implications of achieving these targets for technology deployment and electricity costs in western North America, focusing on scenarios limiting carbon emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. We find that achieving the SunShot target for solar photovoltaics would allow this technology to provide more than a third of electric power in the region, displacing natural gas in the medium term and reducing the need for nuclear and carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies, which face technological and cost uncertainties, by 2050. We demonstrate that a diverse portfolio of technological options can help integrate high levels of solar generation successfully and cost-effectively. The deployment of GW-scale storage plays a central role in facilitating solar deployment and the availability of flexible loads could increase the solar penetration level further. In the scenarios investigated, achieving the SunShot target can substantially mitigate the cost of implementing a carbon cap, decreasing power costs by up to 14% and saving up to $20 billion ($2010) annually by 2050 relative to scenarios with Reference solar costs.

The launch of vol­ume 8 of Envi­ron­men­tal Research Let­ters (ERL) comes at a crit­i­cal time in terms of inno­va­tions and excit­ing areas of sci­ence, but par­tic­u­larly in the areas link­ing envi­ron­men­tal research and action. The most recent cli­mate change Con­fer­ence of the Par­ties meet­ing (COP), in Doha in Decem­ber 2012, has now come and gone. As […]

In order to reach a goal of uni­ver­sal access to mod­ern energy ser­vices in Africa by 2030, con­sid­er­a­tion of var­i­ous elec­tric­ity sec­tor path­ways is required to help inform policy-​​makers and investors, and help guide power sys­tem design. To that end, and build­ing on exist­ing tools and analy­sis, we present sev­eral ‘high-​​level’, trans­par­ent, and economy-​​wide sce­nar­ios […]

U.S. Navy vet­eran Elmer Rankin, 71, has a fail­ing heart, prostate can­cer and arthri­tis that keeps him in a wheel­chair. Last year, Rankin, who sur­vives on his Social Secu­rity checks, could no longer afford the mount­ing costs to heat his home and power the oxy­gen tank he uses every night. He turned down the heat […]

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Green Job Creation and Regional Economic Opportunities at the State Level

Decarbonizing electricity production is central to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Exploiting intermittent renewable energy resources demands power system planning models with high temporal and spatial resolution. We use a mixed-integer linear programming model – SWITCH – to analyze least-cost generation, storage, and transmission capacity expansion for western North America under various policy and cost scenarios. Current renewable portfolio standards are shown to be insufficient to meet emission reduction targets by 2030 without new policy. With stronger carbon policy consistent with a 450 ppm climate stabilization scenario, power sector emissions can be reduced to 54% of 1990 levels by 2030 using different portfolios of existing generation technologies. Under a range of resource cost scenarios, most coal power plants would be replaced by solar, wind, gas, and/or nuclear generation, with intermittent renewable sources providing at least 17% and as much as 29% of total power by 2030. The carbon price to induce these deep carbon emission reductions is high, but, assuming carbon price revenues are reinvested in the power sector, the cost of power is found to increase by at most 20% relative to business-as-usual projections.

Many tools that are helpful for evaluating emissions mitigation measures, such as carbon abatement cost curves, focus exclusively on cost and emissions reduction potential without quantifying the direct and indirect impacts on stakeholders. The impacts of climate change will be the most severe and immediate for billions of poor people, especially for those whose livelihoods are based on agriculture and subsistence activities and are directly dependent on weather patterns. Thus, equity and vulnerability considerations must be central to GHG emissions reduction strategies. A case study of a carbon abatement cost curve for
an electricity system in two Nicaraguan rural villages is presented and is complemented with assessments based on the poverty metrics of the poverty headcount, the Gini coefficient, and the Kuznets ratios. Although these metrics are relatively easy to calculate, the study provides a general indication as to how the social impacts of mitigation strategies on the poor (whether they are in rural or urban environments, developed or developing countries) can be revealed and highlights the inequalities that are embedded in them. Further work analysing how mitigation measures affect the various more detailed poverty indices, such as
the Human Development, Gender Equality, or Multidimensional Poverty indices, is needed.

The provision of both electrical and mechanical energy services can play a critical role in poverty alleviation for the almost two billion rural users who currently lack access to electricity. Distributed generation using diesel generators remains a common means of electricity provision for rural communities throughout the world. Due to rising fuel costs, the need to address poverty, and consequences of global warming, it is necessary to develop cost efficient means of reducing fossil fuel consumption in isolated diesel microgrids. Based on a case study in Nicaragua, a set of demand and supply side measures are ordered by their annualized costs in order to approximate an energy supply curve. The curve highlights significant opportunities for reducing the costs of delivering energy services while also transitioning to a carbon-free electrical system. In particular, the study demonstrates the significant cost savings resulting from the implementation of conventional metering, efficient residential lighting, and electricity generation using renewable energy sources.

An analytical job creation model for the US power sector from 2009 to 2030 is presented. The model
synthesizes data from 15 job studies covering renewable energy(RE), energy efficiency (EE), carbon
capture and storage (CCS) and nuclear power. The paper employs a consistent methodology of
normalizing job data to average employment per unit energy produced over plant lifetime. Job losses in
the coal and natural gas industry are modeled to project net employment impacts. Benefits and
drawbacks of the methodology are assessed and the resulting model is used for job projections under
various renewable portfolio standards (RPS), EE,and low carbon energy scenarios. We find that all non-fossil fuel technologies (renewable energy, EE, low carbon) create more jobs per unit energy than coal
and natural gas. Aggressive EE measures combined with a 30% RPS target in 2030 can generate over 4
million full-time-equivalent job-yearsby 2030 while increasing nuclear power to 25% and CCS to 10% of
over all generation in 2030 can yield an additional 500,000 job-years.

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National and Multinational Energy Policy

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Green Job Creation and Regional Economic Opportunities at the State Level

Close to two-thirds of the world’s poorest populations live in rural areas (1). The eradication of rural poverty depends on increased access to goods, services, and information, many of which are detailed in the United Nation’s Millennium Devel-opment Goals. However, alleviating pov-erty is hindered by two interlinked phe-nomena: the lack of access to improved energy services and climate change. Miti-gating climate change, increasing energy access, and alleviating rural poverty can all be complementary. Their spheres of connection define the energy-poverty-climate nexus. We show that many aspects of rural poverty can be addressed in cost-effective manners while also transitioning to low carbon economies. The construction of a marginal abatement cost curve for a rural Nicaraguan community connects cost-effective, low carbon interventions to poverty reduction.

Investment in energy research and development in the U.S. is declining despite calls for an enhancement of the nation’s capacity for innovation to address environmental, geopolitical, and macroeconomic concerns. We examine investments in research and development in the energy sector, and observe broad-based declines in funding since the mid-1990s. The large reductions in investment by the private sector should be a particular area of concern for policy makers. Multiple measures of patenting activity reveal widespread declines in innovative activity that are correlated with research and development (R&D) investment—notably in the environmentally significant wind and solar areas. Trends in venture capital investment and fuel cell innovation are two promising cases that run counter to the overall trends in the sector. We draw on prior work on the optimal level of energy R&D to identify a range of values which would be adequate to address energy-related concerns. Comparing simple scenarios based on this range to past public R&D programs and industry investment data indicates that a five to ten-fold increase in energy R&D investment is both warranted and feasible.

We clar­ify the mech­a­nisms through which rural elec­tri­fi­ca­tion can con­tribute to rural devel­op­ment. Through a detailed case study analy­sis of a community-​​based elec­tric micro-​​grid in rural Kenya, we demon­strate that access to elec­tric­ity enables the use of elec­tric equip­ment and tools by small and micro enter­prises, result­ing in sig­nif­i­cant improve­ment in pro­duc­tiv­ity per worker (100–200% depend­ing on the […]

We analyzed the mortality impacts and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced by household energy use in Africa. Under a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario, household indoor air pollution will cause an estimated 9.8 million premature deaths by the year 2030. Gradual and rapid transitions to charcoal would delay 1.0 million and 2.8 million deaths, respectively; similar transitions to petroleum fuels would delay 1.3 million and 3.7 million deaths. Cumulative BAU GHG emissions will be 6.7 billion tons of carbon by 2050, which is 5.6% of Africa's total emissions. Large shifts to the use of fossil fuels would reduce GHG emissions by 1 to 10%. Charcoal-intensive future scenarios using current practices increase emissions by 140 to 190%; the increase can be reduced to 5 to 36% using currently available technologies for sustainable production or potentially reduced even more with investment in technological innovation.

We analyzed the mortality impacts and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
produced by household energy use in Africa. Under a business-as-usual (BAU)
scenario, household indoor air pollution will cause an estimated 9.8 million
premature deaths by the year 2030. Gradual and rapid transitions to charcoal
would delay 1.0 million and 2.8 million deaths, respectively; similar transitions
to petroleum fuels would delay 1.3 million and 3.7 million deaths. Cumulative
BAU GHG emissions will be 6.7 billion tons of carbon by 2050, which is 5.6% of
Africa’s total emissions. Large shifts to the use of fossil fuels would reduce
GHG emissions by 1 to 10%. Charcoal-intensive future scenarios using current
practices increase emissions by 140 to 190%; the increase can be reduced to 5
to 36% using currently available technologies for sustainable production or
potentially reduced even more with investment in technological innovation.

Background
Acute respiratory infections (ARI) are the leading cause of the global burden of disease and have been causally linked with exposure to pollutants from domestic biomass fuels in less-developed countries. We used longitudinal health data coupled with detailed monitoring of personal exposure from more than 2 years of field measurements in rural Kenya to estimate the exposure-response relation for particulates smaller than 10 μm in diameter (PM10) generated from biomass combustion.
Methods
55 randomly-selected households (including 93 infants and children, 229 individuals between 5 and 49 years of age, and 23 aged 50 or older) in central Kenya were followed up for more than 2 years. Longitudinal data on ARI and acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI) were recorded at weekly clinical examinations. Exposure to PM10 was monitored by measurement of PM10 emission concentration and time-activity budgets.
Findings
With the best estimate of the exposure-response relation, we found that ARI and ALRI are increasing concave functions of average daily exposure to PM10, with the rate of increase declining for exposures above about 1000–2000 μg/m3. After we had included high-intensity exposure episodes, sex was no longer a significant predictor of ARI and ALRI.
Interpretation
The benefits of reduced exposure to PM10 are larger for average exposure less than about 1000–2000 μg/m3. Our findings have important consequences for international public-health policies, energy and combustion research, and technology transfer efforts that affect more than 2 billion people worldwide.

Disagreement over principles for the inclusion of developing countries in future global greenhouse gas caps remains an obstacle to the ratification and implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. Baer et al. argue that a transition from allocations based on past emissions (with a "grandfather clause"), such as the Kyoto Protocol, embodies for the industrialized nations, to allocations a new regime based on equal per capita emissions rights, is a necessary and fair solution that can lead to an effective global reduction regime. Such an allocation is consistent with numerous ethical principles and legal precedents, could facilitate trading in emissions permits, and can be implemented through a transitional period that accommodates the different situations and emissions levels of various countries.

This Viewpoint examines data on international trends in energy research and
development (R&D) funding, patterns of U.S. energy technology patents and
R&D funding, and U.S. R&D intensities across selected sectors. The data
present a disturbing picture: (i) Energy technology funding levels have declined
signiÞcantly during the past two decades throughout the industrial
world; (ii) U.S. R&D spending and patents, both overall and in the energy
sector, have been highly correlated during the past two decades; and (iii) the
R&D intensity of the U.S. energy sector is extremely low. It is argued that
recent cutbacks in energy R&D are likely to reduce the capacity of the energy
sector to innovate. The trends are particularly troubling given the need for
increased international capacity to respond to emerging risks such as global
climate change.